Montiellet Fromagerie

In November I was lucky enough to help cook a fantastic dinner for the Dunham Cellars fall wine release dinner. If you are looking for fine tasting Washington wines for any occasion Dunham Cellars is an excellent choice.

If the excitement of the dinner wasn't enough, the next day we spent time with Joan and Pierre-Louis Monteillet of Monteillet Fromagerie.  The Monteillet Fromagerie produces wonderful artisan cheeses made from the milk of the goats and sheep they raise on their 32 acres. We got a tour of the cheese making kitchen and then Joan treated us to some of the cheeses which were complimented with fall fruit and wine of course!

The icing on the weekend cake was spending the whole afternoon cooking, eating, sipping wine and getting to know each other. The afternoon is what great company and local food is all about.

Fresh lamb chops!

Mussels from the Washington coast

Thank you Joan and Pierre-Louis for a most excellent day!

A Little Orange With That Green?

My tomato plants produced a massive amount of green fruit this season.  I have gotten a couple pounds of ripe tomatoes but the cold summer and fall have really put a damper on how quickly the fruit is maturing.  As leaves on the trees start to color, the morning air is becoming  crisp,  and the rains have returned,  I've decided to pick all the large tomatoes and see if I can ripen them in batches through the fall.

Fried green tomatoes anyone?

This post is part of Simple Lives Thursday.

Surprise Guests

This summer, my brother gave me some of his old bee boxes and books on beekeeping. I gladly hauled the boxes home from Oregon and was excited to do bee research over the fall and winter, then buy bees in the spring for pollinating my berry plants, vegetable plants and fruit trees.  Of course the bonus of sweet golden honey to harvest later in the summer would be a welcome addition to our kitchen.

bee boxes 

One of the boxes had frames loaded with about 60 pounds of honey which I thought I would replace with new frames in the spring.

Last week while I was at work, my husband called and said one group of bee boxes was covered with bees and they were moving in!

The new tenants

Now I'm on a crash course trying to keep my new hive of bees alive through the winter and have gone from this....

to this.....

I'm feeling excited and a little nervous about my new tenants. If anyone has suggestions on winter beekeeping, please leave a comment.

This post is part of Simple Lives Thursdays.

Food Did Happen...

The sunshine hours in the Seattle area were less than stellar this summer, but some fruits and veggies did make an appreciated appearance in the garden. 

Red Gold potatoes

Touchstone Gold

Kristin cherries

The blueberry bushes were well pollinated and produced a wonderful crop of deliciousness and I froze four gallons for making the best blueberry muffins ever all winter long!

Blueberries

My Ladies gardened with me and enjoyed a few raspberries along the way.

chicken acrobatics

My tomatoes are showing signs of bearing fruit and I have harvested about 2 pounds of tomatoes so far. 

I love the color gradation of the grape tomatoes!

And some apples, not many, but some.

Akane apples

New critters did make themselves  known in the garden this season....the voles. I am using snap traps to help our cat with the population control. Voles tunnel under everything making it impossible for plants to establish a root system.  They also take bites out of root vegetables and mow down anything that suits their fancy.

vole hole

The Puget Sound area the farmers markets are a terrific resource of everything fresh and I've been able to buy all the fruits and vegetables that were missing from my garden.

Owl Love

A few mornings ago I heard my hens squawking in a squawk they don't usually make. Then minute later I heard the crows having a loud and boisterous conversation as well. This cacophony of sound pulled me out the house to see what the ruckus was about...Sitting in a tree above the chicken pen was a pair of Great Horned Owls,  so awesome. This is the first time I've seen an owl in our yard and I'm a little uncomfortable that they were watching over our chickens, but all seems well with the Ladies...

The Dirty Life: On Farming Food and Love

CSA farmer and author Kristin Kimball has written a wonderful and inspiring memoir about her evolution from complete city girl to gritty committed farmer.  Inspired by an idealistic man and the romantic idea of feeding a community, Kristin embarks on a journey where she learns everything from plowing fields with a team of horses to planting seeds to slaughtering. Her descriptions of how she transforms during her fist year of hardcore farming are completely engaging.

I connected with The Dirty Life: On Farming Food and Love because I related to finding joy and satisfaction in feeding myself, family and friends. Eating foods that I've nurtured and grown always seem to taste better and leave me with a feeling of being more solidly connected to life. Enjoying my urban farming successes along with the struggles keeps me continually planning on improving my gardens and the ability to put delicious food on the table.  The Dirty Life makes me want to run outside, grab the shovel and start digging!

This post is part of Simple Lives Thursday.

Lemongrass

I recently started cooking with lemongrass and I love it!  This grass is used in many Thai and Vietnamese dishes and brings a citrusy-bright flavor to every dish you can imagine.

Being the avid gardner that I am, I thought this grass would be the perfect addition to my garden. So after hunting around on the internet for growing instructions, it  seems this perennial is easy to grow.....just like the other grasses that seem to pop up in the middle of my gardens.

Start with a bunch of lemongrass that can be found in your local Asian market, cut the tops off and placed the stalks in water. Be sure to choose plants that look like they have some life left in them.

Change the water every couple of days and in 2 - 3 weeks you will start seeing root development happening.

When there is solid root growth, plant the stalks in a sunny location. Remember that lemongrass needs to stay warm all year. I'm planting my stalks in a pot that can be brought indoors or placed in the hoophouse.

Lemongrass is well on the way to producing a fresh crop of deliciousness!

This post is part of Simple Lives Thursday!

Game On!

Several weeks ago I planted seeds and set them under a grow light in the kitchen. It's been fun to see how quickly the seeds have sprouted and grown.  This is the first time I've started seeds inside and will continue to do starts throughout the next several weeks.  This year I planted seeds from Johnny's Select Seeds, Seeds of Change and the Territorial Seed Company. Seeds I sowed in March are:

Pac Choi - Mei Qing

Onion - Cortland F1

Leek - Scotland

Beet - Red Ace F1

Swiss Chard - Rhubarb and Bright Lights

Asian Green - Green Lance F1

Broccoli - Belstar F1

Kale - Winterbor

Brussels Sprouts - Long Island

Sugar Snap Pea

Today I got to plant some of these seedlings in one of my garden boxes. 

If it doesn't rain tomorrow, I'll be sowing seeds in my garden box with the hoophouse.